Turkish police detain 32 in Kurdish militant probe
Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:29 GMT
ISTANBUL, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Police detained at least 32 people in dawn raids across Turkey on Friday and searched the home of a prominent Kurdish politician as part of an investigation into alleged ties between Kurdish activists and separatist militants, officials said.
The operation focused on the offices and homes of members of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), the largest party in parliament representing Turkey's restive Kurdish minority.
Among those whose homes were raided was Leyla Zana, who was elected to parliament in June 2011 as an independent and later joined the BDP. Security officials said police seized documents and computers from Zana's home.
Raids were carried out in 16 provinces, including Istanbul, Ankara, and Diyarbakir in the mainly Kurdish southeast.
The BDP, which formed a bloc of 29 deputies in the national assembly, has accused the government of trying to neutralise opponents before planned constitutional reforms, which are expected to include the question of Kurdish rights.
Kurds, living mainly in southeast Turkey, make up about 15 percent of the country's 80 million population.
BDP officials say up to 5,000 BDP members have been arrested in nationwide raids.
"We know that these operations are run by the government," BDP co-chairman Selahattin Demirtas said. "The (ruling) AK Party's coup orders the extermination of Kurds. That's what their coup targets."
Scores of BDP activists, including elected mayors and provincial leaders in the mainly Kurdish southeast and many Kurdish journalists and intellectuals, have been detained since the investigation began two years ago.
The mass detentions threaten to handicap efforts to forge political consensus for a new constitution that is expected partly to address the issue of Kurdish rights.
The probe is focused on an organisation called the Union of Kurdistan Communities (KCK), and is closely watched by the European Union, which Turkey hopes to join.
According to a 2009 indictment, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a rebel group branded a terrorist organisation by Ankara, the EU and the United States, established the KCK with the aim of creating its own Kurdish political system.
Some 150 politicians and activists are already being tried in Diyarbakir, where a large courtroom has been specially built, on charges of membership of an armed terrorist group. Similar trials are being held in other cities across Turkey.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict between Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants and the state since the militants launched their armed insurgency in 1984. (Writing by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Tim Pearce)
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